Travis County Commissioners Court
April 7, 2009,
Item 4
We will call up item no.4 next then to 11.
4.
consider and take appropriate action on requests from city of Austin and sustainable food policy board for assignment of county staff and participation of board members on city-sponsored ethics training.
good afternoon, sherri flemming.
i am here to bring forward a request from the stainable food policy board.
they have had two meetings now.
and been working diligently in selecting their officers and approving their bylaws.
they have also been working on their standing committees.
so I anticipate that they will have either through staff or one of the members of the board an update for you fairly soon.
but in the midst of their sort of organizing and planning, they did make a request that echoed the request from the city of Austin that the Commissioner Commissioners court formally assign staff to support the board.
the city of Austin has done so.
they have identified staff in their health and human services department that will be working with the board at all of their meetings, helping them with whatever planning or data collection they might need.
they ask formally first the city and then the board itself requested that I bring forward to you a request to have staff assigned to support them.
>> and -- and by staff they mean?
one person?
or -- one and a half?
>> staff's recommendation would be if it were -- if you desire to assign the health and human services department, we would have one person attend and as they had needs, the need is probably pretty great right now as they get organized, then later on there may be opportunity for other staff to drop in and out to assist.
for example, we fully expect that the agrilife extension staff will have a role to play, maybe on some of their subcommittees.
so my recommendation would be an assignment of our department or myself or my designee.
>> so the city did not designate specific individuals.
they just agreed to provide appropriate staffing?
>> yes.
>> and we think that these staff members from the two or three entities will be able to coordinate the work in such a way that you divide it up and split it up and I guess have maximum effectiveness that way?
>> yes, sir.
at this moment in time I think we are all committed to helping them with the organizational -- organizational issues that will certainly arise with this group.
they are wanting to move forward with looking at what issues they want to focus on most immediately during their first term.
staff will also be able to sort of manage your appointments in that the city appointments will -- the city appointees will actually have to be reappointed as soon as August.
your appoint yes will be reappointed in February I think.
so yes I think the staff will be able to manage the work of the committee or booed, if not we will certainly -- of the board, if not we will let you know.
>> move that we
>> [indiscernible] the staffing and the court be kept abreast of the work log.
>> second.
>> I was going to say I think that this is start-up, we don't really have a good field for the amount of staff time that's required.
good feel for it.
as we move forward it would be nice to try to move towards being able to quantify the staffing over the longer term that would be needed.
>> we can certainly do that Commissioner Huber.
i know that the city's plan at this point is not only to staff the board members but to attempt to staff the committees as well.
so far we have two standing committees, we will sort of put our heads together and figure out exactly how that works.
we will let you know.
question, judge, should your motion include the health and human services department.
>> that was the intention.
>> my motion was really to defer to the expert judgement of the director of that department.
especially the part about keeping us up to speed on what's happening and how the workload is going.
>> yes, sir.
>> judge, would you consider it friendly to that motion to have hhs as the primary liaison but also empower sherri to reach out to transportation and natural resources or intergovernmental relations or other divisions within the county as they become relevant to the -- to the activities of the board?
>> sherri is not the kind of power hungry individual to want that authority.
are you asking whether she should feel free to call upon other county departments as a -- as input is necessary to help this committee meet its goals?
>> yeah.
>> the minute sherri goes to one of those departments, though, they will want to know what kind of involvement the court wants them to have.
this impacts the work plan in place at some point.
i do think if we see at one point that the transportation issues become relevant then our transportation department should be called upon to assist if whatever way it can.
so I think the court would want to urge that cooperation, right?
>> uh-huh.
>> if the problem with something -- the problem with something like this is the workload could get real, real heavy.
if you are not doing the work it's easy to create assignments.
i have kind of always been worried that on committees like this, one week one issue, next week is not necessarily a continuation of that issue, it may be issue number 2.
but if you are doing the work then you can appreciate how that's happening.
if you are not doing the work, it's a whole lot easier to generate additional subjects.
somebody has got to monitor that and if it seems to be headed in the wrong direction or becoming a lot more labor intensive than we imagined, you know, let us know so we can respond accordingly.
>> well, I appreciate that recognition, judge.
i think you're right.
i think that we certainly will have to keep the court abreast of the activities of this board.
i think their initial plans involve having a public meeting to -- to give the public an opportunity to weigh in on what should be the primary issues of concern, both short and long term.
then to have the board itself meet in the retreat to prioritize those -- those recommendations that they hear from the public.
certainly staff will want to be involved in that and I would imagine that once they get to a point where they have identified those issues, they will want to come before the court and talk about what those issues are and also to determine if there are any additional issues that you would like to add to their work assignment.
but they have been very attentive to their charge and there was quite a bit of discussion on yesterday particularly about their committee assignments and the relationship to the charge that they have.
so I think that you have a hard working board who has taken this responsibility very seriously and so staff will do all that we can to support them and also help them to work as efficiently as policy.
>> thank you so much for that.
>> all of that is covered by the motion, right?
any more discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
there's another part of this item.
>> the remaining issue has to do with the city of Austin in its enabling ordinances around boards and commissions required their appointees to complete an online ethics training.
we have not had such a requirement.
some of your appointees, what is your pleasure related to their participation in those activities.
i agreed to ask you.
so -- so whatever your pleasure would be, I would be happy to communicate to the board if it's your interest for them to also complete those activities.
>> it doesn't take a whole lot of time.
we have to do that for our stuff now.
>> we think that it's beneficial?
>> I think so.
>> yes, sir.
we think it's beneficial both for their just their knowledge of working in this what's but also they would have the same font of knowledge as their colleagues on the board.
it's online I think.
so they can do it at their convenience.
>> my own view is that we ought to request but not require.
hopefully they will follow-up on it.
>> yes, sir.
>> if it's a requirement I think we are kind of duty bond to let them know up front.
but there's nothing to keep up from indicating that we think it would be a good idea.
>> yes, sir.
>> plus they would have the same information that the city appointees that are working on the same committees or subcommittees have.
>> second.
>> any more discussion?
now if we don't get any participation I'm willing to reconsider that request.
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you ms.
flemming, keep having fun with the group.
>> I will definitely do that, thank you.
>> okay.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 2:03 PM